Discussion: NPR: Top Career DOJ Lawyer, Rosenstein Adviser Scott Schools To Resign

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"a critical ā€˜strategic counselor and repository of institutional memory and ethics at the DOJ,ā€™ā€

Can’t have anyone like that in tRump’s (in)Justice Department!

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I can’t help but hope that people like him know what Mueller and his team are about to flush down the trump sewer.

Could this July 4th be another Independence Day from the trump tyranny?

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Bummer.

Wonder if survival mode kicked in at a level stronger than love of country.

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Any reason he can’t be hired by Mueller?

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That is precisely what i’ve been hoping all year. Unfortunately, i don’t see that happening by tomorrow. Soon, though! Count on that.

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The job title for Schools — associate deputy attorney general — belied his importance as a strategic counselor and repository of institutional memory and ethics at the DOJ. Schools has played a critical, if behind-the-scenes, role in some of the most important and sensitive issues in the building.

Makes sense. If a university hired a professor on the basis of his or her research achievements or potential, and then it turned out that the department the professor has worked for has fundamentally changed its mission, or the Dean has decided to merge the department with Funeral Sciences to save money and attract more students, then said professor would be highly tempted to jump ship to greener pastures, tenure or no, full professorship or no, international reputation or no. You have to go where you can make a contribution and be happy. You will never convince the Dean to act otherwise, even if you mocked him at the local Super China Buffet and the Hollywood Video at the Mall. No, you only have one life to give, and I regret to inform you that it’s worth too much to waste in the department of Mathematics and Funeral Sciences.

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Two unnamed sources, respectively, told NPR ….

That’s going to leave more than a few people bald from all the head-scratching.

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You are either an experienced academic or really intuitive. Your comment about ā€œmerging the department with Funeral Sciences to save moneyā€ has me laughing precisely because it rings so true. The example also translates well to what this DOJ lawyer may be experiencing.

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Oh, it’s true, or was, back in '99 when I attended the Joint Meetings for the first time, looking for my first postgraduate academic job. They warned me that there are no oceans in Oklahoma, and I told them that I’d be careful not to make waves.

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So, ā€œdeep stateā€ and ā€œthe e-word.ā€

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Will the last one to leave please turn out the lights?

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I retired from my academic job because of the eternal difficulty in funding a lab that was doing 1st rate ovarian cancer research. The reasoning was not unlike what @danny described.

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I’m an academic contemplating retirement precisely because of the approach that @danny described. I have no regrets - I’ve enjoyed my career because I love teaching. But, the bureaucracy and rationale used to make educational decisions really defy explanation at times.

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The math department always gets the least amount of money and classroom space and computer labs and respect, because we don’t do research directly leading to stronger forms of asphalt and light roast coffee with a pH. of 7.8, and we don’t need a lot of money for scientific equipment. What the hell is it all good for anyway? You guys sit around in your offices, staring at nothing, doodling your bullshit equations and graphs, torturing your students with hard exams when you should be finding a way to reach them where they are with clickers and manipulatives and film strips and custom-designed textbooks with self-directed inquiry, teaching them skills that nobody has a use for, being that one person who prevented that brilliant psychology student from earning her second graduate degree by being unable to pass that one statistics class because the professor didn’t agree with the teaching philosophy she learned in a gen ed math ed class that the point of teaching is to ENGAGE the student and not DRILL them with meaningless formulas and equations and the dreaded story problem (what they call word problems in the midwest).

@marby

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Our last faculty senate meeting featured the confrontational attitude and a lot of the actual dialogue you just presented!

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Oh, trust me, I have more anecdotes to share. The only reason I don’t is because anyone who would appreciate them has already heard them all.

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Or better yet, Avenatti?

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The fuse has been lit. The flash has already occurred. Now we’re just waiting for the bang to arrive, at its somewhat slower velocity. I plan to watch from my deck – I can see the tippy top of the colorful parabolic arcs just above the tree line, and I love the smell of sulfur in the evening.

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Well, they took turns, because at NPR they do things politely.

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